Through the Internet and other networks, users have gained access to large amounts of information distributed over a large number of computers. Various techniques are available for facilitating user access to desired information. Known techniques typically include user implementation of a search engine in order to locate desired information.
Currently, when implementing a search engine, a user enters one or more keywords and receives a set of results. Each result includes a description that has a predetermined set of components. Typically, the description includes a portion of a document title, a portion of a document body, and a relevant universal resource locator (URL) for each web page result returned. In a few specific instances, such as a web shopping search, a hard coded set of fields is returned. Such fields may include price or model number fields.
Search techniques are used for many different activities by end users and increasingly by developers. However, the results that are returned are wholly under the control of the search engine as predetermined by hard coded rules and cannot be controlled by the user or developer. While the uses of a search engine vary, the interface is locked.
No search system currently exists for allowing a user to control aspects of returned search results, including which portion of the body the description is pulled from, the length of the description, or what other attributes of the document or structured data within the document may be returned as a portion of the result. Furthermore, no currently known search system enables users or developers to specify elements of the user interface that display the description. Furthermore, after receiving search results, developers are unable to programmatically render search results in a desired format.
Accordingly, a system and method are needed for allowing customization of web search result descriptions by consumers including users and developers. A solution can be created by leveraging existing technologies such as XML, HTML, metatags, and indexing. By creating such a solution, a search platform can be created that is capable of expansion and modification. Such a system would improve the search experience for consumers of search results including users and developers.